What is fairy music?
- liedflechter
- Apr 5, 2021
- 4 min read
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I love music. With all my heart and soul.
I just feel reminded of that during these spring days, now that I'm starting to listen to music more frequently again. But it is something I already felt in my teens. It is not the same music anymore like back then (for some music it actually is), but it's still the same amazement when discovering a new (or rediscovering an old) song, album or artist. And I'm not writing love as a phrase, but love is what I mean. Happiness and excitement carrying me through that day, giving me energy, keeping me from sleeping. A cloud of butterflies getting loose inside of me when that melody starts. A desperate desire to share that feeling. An awkward obsession difficult to understand by others. And, definitely, an addiction. Worse than chocolate.
That is probably why I got very early into niche music. I researched my own taste as a teenager and gathered playlists of songs nobody knew, my personal treasures. After scaring away some friends I learned to be a bit careful with that obsession in a social context, so with the sad taste of resignation I got used to keep it for myself - up to a point of getting nervous to share the music I love with others, constantly worrying how it might sound to their ears. Nowadays I'm more relaxed. Because I know that most people don't even realize what is happening on the speakers. For most people, music never has the same meaning as for me. In my age / surroundings, people were listening to other music - distorted electric guitars, screams of anger, melodies that felt pointless to me. We got along with one or another compromise - sometimes involving little eccentricities from my side like secretly lowering the volume or replacing that annoying random youtube selection by something else. Sometimes I couldn't and crossed fingers to survive that few hours of car ride with the ever same CD, or worse, the radio. They did not know I was suffering. They just would not understand.
On very few occasions I took the freedom to play a CD to my friends. I know enough music which is easy to listen to and hard to make enemies with. One day my best friend was joking like: Sophie, you're listening to fairy music. She said it with a forgiving smile, but actually she was right. It was such a nicely accurate description how this music of innocent melodies, World music instruments, dance-like song structure and sometimes uneven rhythms is perceived by people not familiar with New Age music… so, yeah. I'm listening to fairy music. And since it is not a typical genre, I decided to make a playlist for you - hoping to share a bit of my amazement, my love for this music with you in a moment you're interested in it :)
I chose only one song for each artist (hard choice!) so you can continue to explore the albums of the ones you like best.
Here's my personal connection to some of them.
The song in the video above is from...
Ronan Hardiman: The Lord of the Dance
Irish step dance music
When I was a kid, papa was playing this music during long night car rides to our holiday destinations. But even nostalgia apart, the whole Lord of the Dance music are just wonderful compositions which I can't stop admiring and which also greatly influenced my taste / style of music.
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Richard Searles
Instrumental Celtic / fantasy music with guitar, flutes, hammered dulcimer
I have two CDs from him which I especially (but not only) like to play during fantasy role playing sessions.
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Klaus Doldinger: The Neverending Story
Dream-like orchestral fantasy soundtrack
Quite old and just incredibly beautiful... way before the term fantasy soundtrack was connected with certain expectations. This song is a kind of "fly-through" through several other songs of the soundtrack: "Die Sümpfe der Traurigkeit", "Der Elfenbeinturm" and "Atréjus Flug".
I love the book as well. There's some creative message in the idea of a kid with the power of wishes entering the dream world which was one of my main inspirations to start writing.
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Frank Steiner
New Age with World music elements
One of the most inspiring musicians for me. He often combines Asian music / World music influences with European music. He has a bandwidth of styles and I admire his compositions, the energy / flow is his music and the sound work in his album "Momentum" which is just a fairy tale :]
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Davutus
Playful fantasy soundtracks for role play gaming
Found on Radio Rivendell (Online fantasy radio station): https://www.radiorivendell.com
Happy to find his music on YouTube now ^^ I've just been loving his songs for years!
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Cyrille Lecoq
Handpan music from Alsace (France)
A friend of the collaborative where I work. He has several instruments made by the collaborative... an awesome player of fairy rhythms and an amazing sound engineer as well. He has an album called Osmotic Wave which I like a lot.
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Vangelis
Emotional New Age / calm electronic music
I never saw the movie so I don't really consider it as a soundtrack. The whole album is just a wonderful artwork of sound, rhythm and melody with the typical synth sounds adding a touch of space. Giving me the goose bumps each time I rediscover it. Probably one of my most important musical influences.
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